A Look Inside the Newest Boeing 747

Aviation blogger Sam Chui recently took a visit to the Boeing Customer Experience Center for a tour of a mockup of the newest Boeing 747.

Regional Director of Cabin Experience and Revenue Analysis Kent Craver gives the tour of the new plane to give Sam a rundown of the new look, including the VIP and Mega First Class suites and the lighting and design techniques Boeing implemented to make the cabin feel larger than it is.

“This is my love, this Boeing 747…my love of aviation started on this plane,” says Chui. Check out the video (which also includes a tour of a 737 and 787 mockup) here:

Well I agree with you emotionally but as a businessman if I was offered a 777 300 ER with the same pax capacity and lower operating costs could I expect my pax to pay a higher fare to experience 747 8i travel? A few undoubtedly would, many would switch to save $1 if it meant a seat 15″ wide and pitch of 28″. The future for 747 has four directions as I see it: 1) Provide a long range version that can do syd-lhr, nrt-gru or jnb-lax with full load with headwinds; a step up in size to accommodate more pax than a 777 9 or an A380 or lastly to increase the cruising real air speed to 550 knots resulting in an hour saving on routes like LAX-LHR or an hour and a half on JFK-NRT. There is a big focus on supersonic again but the cruising speed of pax equipment has really not changed since the 1970’s and there is uo to 20% improvement that could be done without going supersonic even at FL400.

It’d be nice if they specified what variant this is. I’d assume a 747-8i. But the description of it as “the newest 747” is misleading making it sound like a new variant, but i guess he just means newest of the production line of the existing 747-8i variant??

Thanks to Sam for posting this. Sadly, these days most all airplanes look pretty generic inside – a sea of light grey, dark grey or dark blue seats. Better service notwithstanding, I liked flying back in the 1970s much more. Alas, in today’s society most people prefer the homogenized look of a sea of uniform blue/grey seats

Thanks for posting this video. As I watched, I had flashbacks of my second trip on an airplane, It was 1970 or ’71 and we were aboard a 747 in LAX or SFO. My adolescent self was awed by the Pan Am flight attendant in her suit and hat as she toured my sister and I through the plane and up the circular stairs to the lounge as fellow travelers boarded for our flight to Japan. I’ll never forget it. Wish my mom had taken pictures of us in that plane!